HamStar Wheel
by WOWZAcoolBEANS
Summary: Excommunicated from Fairy Tail, Laxus starts at a new guild named HamStar Wheel. Chapter 3: Laxus, Anton and Tegan go on their first mission together and Laxus scares Regina's granddaughter Emilia.
1. The Search Is Over

**Title: **HamStar Wheel

**Description:** Excommunicated from Fairy Tail, Laxus had no where to go… That was until the guild HamStar Wheel decided that they'd like to have him as one of their nakama. This is his story and misadventures in the guild HamStar Wheel.

**Rating**: T

**Chapter Title: **The Search Is Over

**A/N: **I had this idea, and I had to go with it. Usually I don't write things with OCs, but after thinking of this, I thought that it would be fun for a change. There will be cameos and bits with the characters from _Fairy Tail_, but this will be centered on Laxus and the members of HamStar Wheel. Where did I get that stupid name, you ask? Easy. I was thinking of the show Hamtaro. ^.^ Oh, and this is reposted, by the way. Due to certain circumstances, I took it off, but now it's back and will be staying.

**Character Spotlight**: Specializing in size changing magic, Tegan can take anything and make it bigger or smaller at will. Tegan's on a quest to find her dad, who is a member of a dark guild somewhere. She has a special soft spot for Anton, but he doesn't know and she doesn't intend on telling him anytime soon. The reason that she is at HamStar is because she found the location to be convenient. She's twenty-one years old and has been in the guild for a year and a half; she was the first official member. Despite her healthy appearance, Tegan has some problems with sickness.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Fairy Tail, because if I did, Wendy would be a lot less annoying.

--

**First Arc: Welcome to HamStar Wheel!**

"I always knew I had the answer but I never understood the question."

-'A Lifeless Ordinary' by Motion City Soundtrack

--

Being alone was different. There had, his entire life, always been people around him. Scolding him, protecting him, worshiping him, hating him… all sorts of different emotions with that one thing in common.

Before being excommunicated, he had never been lonely.

Not that he was really lonely now, of course, but there was a sinking feeling in his chest whenever he thought of the fact that there was no where for him to return. No guild, no family, no home. Of course, he could have met with his dad in that man's dark guild, but he had no desire for that.

No, he had wanted to make the strongest legal guild that he could possibly make. He had wanted to do it for the good of the guild that he had cared about so much; there was no need for him to break the law to be with a father who obviously didn't care too much about him.

Sitting in a dingy little bar in the middle of nowhere Laxus took a sip of a frothy mug of beer and wiped the excess foam off of his lips. In front of him was a list of guilds; most of the names had been crossed out.

Fairy Tail

Blue Pegasus

Lamia Scale

Quatro Cerberus

Titan Nose

The list went on listing each guild that Laxus had visited and been rejected from. In the beginning of his quest to find a guild Laxus would have guessed that most of the famous guilds would reject him; though he was powerful, they knew how destructive he could be and they did not want to risk that. But even the smaller guilds had given him the same speech:

"Laxus, we're honored that someone of your caliber and skill would have thought of such a small guild like us, but we think that your talents would be suited elsewhere. You see, if something bad were to happen we don't have enough money and men to repair our guild and we would have to shut down. We wish you luck, but we just don't feel that you're suited for the lifestyle of someone at *insert name of guild here*. Maybe if you come back in a few years we can talk again."

Fifteen guilds, he had visited. And fifteen rejections lay heavily on his shoulders and weighing down his heart. It seemed that all hope was lost and his reputation was beyond repair. What he had done he had done for the guild that he loved, but instead it seemed like his actions would lead to his demise as a mage.

Wishing that he had spent at least some time of his life trying something else besides magic, Laxus drained the rest of his beer and motioned for a waitress in a short skirt to get him another.

It would be another long night; he might as well get prepared for it.

With a sudden burst of cold the door opened to a sound of many voices mixed together happily. A group of about eight teenagers moved a few of the small wooden tables together and spread out; there were no longer any open tables in the entire pub. If Laxus were still who he was a few weeks ago he would have been irritated and brooded about it in a corner for a while before leaving with a dirty look towards that kids.

The new and improved Laxus would not do something like that. Instead he calmly took out a book that he was carrying around with him and began to read.

It was book that his grandfather had recommended to him long ago; it was about how to use magic for the betterment of humanity. For a long time that sort of thing wouldn't have mattered to him at all, but now…

The door opened again, this time without all of the ruckus that the group of teenagers had made. Cold wind entered the pub, and Laxus shivered a bit. When he had packed his things at Fairy Tail he had not expected to have been traveling so long that the summer would be over; he didn't have enough money to buy a nice coat and it didn't look like he would be getting enough any time soon. If this kept up, he'd have to start traveling south before the bad weather set in.

Above him there was a shadow. "You can set the drink down on the table." The shadow laughed. Irritated, he looked up to see someone who was not the waitress. "What do you want?"

"There are no tables and you're sitting alone, mind if I join you?" The girl had almond-shaped green eyes and what would be put as birthing hips. Her curly and short black hair bounced around with each of her movements.

Sighing, Laxus nodded. "Go ahead." His eyes returned to the book that he was reading, but he was interrupted by the woman's voice.

"You look familiar; have you been in a magazine or something?" Laxus had been featured in magazines countless times since he was just a tyke, but he didn't really want this woman knowing who he was. Until he found a guild to stay at permanently he didn't need people to know that he was someone who betrayed his guild. "But you're not hot enough to be a model or anything."

Flinching, Laxus looked up at the woman who had a smile on her face. "That got your attention, didn't it? Feeling insecure today?" The waitress came over and placed Laxus's drink in front of him with a smile.

Noticing the new girl at the table she got out a small notepad. "What would you like, hon?"

At the mention of such a cute pet name, the girl's smile became quite a bit more sinister. "I'll have whatever you can find that's strong, and a lot of it." For a moment, she coughed into her arm, smiling apologetically when she was done.

The cute waitress gave the woman a pleading look. "Could you be a little more specific than that?"

"Scotch. On the rocks." The waitress nodded, scribbling furiously on her notepad and walked away. The woman shook her head. "It's always irritating when the wait staff is incompetent. Nonetheless, my name is Tegan Sarmina. And yours, you attractive man, you?"

Wishing this woman would shut up, Laxus gave her the first name that he could think of. "Fried Justine." The name of his former friend would be sure to go unnoticed by Tegan; Fried had never done magazine covers or anything silly like that.

Without warning, Tegan's eyes grew narrow, only showing a slight slit of green. "Really, Fried, you've changed quite a bit then." Her hand reached for a package that she had set down on the floor when she sat down. "Unless, of course, you're an imposter."

"Fine, how do you know Fried, then?" Maintaining his cool, Laxus took a sip of his beverage. "I didn't think that he had many relations."

Tegan began to laugh. "I don't." Putting down his chalice, he stared at Tegan. "But that's a good way to figure out if someone is lying about their identity, is it not, Laxus Dreyar?"

Before Laxus was able to answer there was a bang from the door. Once again cold air filled the pub. "Where is he?" Goons dressed in black started scattering about the pub, shoving and pushing the people who happened to be in their way. When they got to the table of teenagers and started to pull on an innocent girl's hair, Laxus began to stand up, but Tegan beat him to it, the long beige package in her hand.

"Yo, what are you trying to start here; these people have done nothing wrong." A foot wearing what looked like a heavy leather boot came down upon the table, and Tegan leaned against it, resting her arm on her knee. Quickly her eyes scanned the clothes of the men who were now laughing at her. A flash of recognition burst through her eyes. "Raven Tail, eh?" A smile formed. "You've saved me some time by coming here."

"We're not here for you, whoever you may be, missy." A goon said as his grip tightened on the hair of one of the girls. The girl shrieked. "We're here because we heard a rumor that Laxus Dreyar is in the area and we've been told to pick him up."

"Well, you're kind of missing your target. He's sitting over in the corner." Unenthused, Tegan pointed her thumb back at where Laxus was. "It doesn't take a genius to see the _bright yellow_ hair and _fur collar_." The two goons nearest to Tegan looked at each other for a moment, then back at the woman, who was unraveling the package that she was holding.

Sighing, the man holding the hair of the girl let go. "Well, thanks, missy." With a bit of apprehension he began to walk over towards Laxus, but was stopped suddenly by a protruding piece of wood flying out in front of him. Knocking into it, the goon fell down onto the floor, clutching his stomach.

Surprised, Laxus saw that the piece of wood was rather elongated. His eyes followed it into Tegan's hands, where an axe head was present behind the place where here hands were. "Sorry though, Raven Tail, even if you want this kid, I need him more than you do." She paused and the piece of wood shrunk. "So don't you dare touch him."

As Laxus half-sat, half-stood confused as the three other goons from around the room and the one who had been standing by his fallen comrade began to circle around Tegan, they all shouted out insults and degrading things, but Tegan's smile just grew larger.

"Before we start this," She said as she put her axe across her shoulders. "I have a question to ask."

"We won't tell you why we want Laxus!" One of the goons shouted.

Tegan looked taken aback for a moment. "I don't care why you want him; he's mine. No, my question is something much more important." Across her shoulders the axe head grew larger. "Is there a man named Sebastian Sarmina in your guild right now?" The people in the pub were all running away at this time, letting the mages do their work alone.

"No." One of the goons said. The one who Tegan had knocked over got to his feet and began to creep up behind the girl. "There's no one by that name in our guild."

Tegan grinned. "Good." When her axe stopped growing, it was almost as big as she was. "Then I can fight full-out." With one swing of her axe, the goon that was planning a sneak attack on her was flung across the room and hit the wall with a satisfying thud. For a moment there was silence, nothing making noise besides the faint groan of the now unconscious thug.

One by one the thugs fell to her axe, though, she did not cut them. Instead she opted to use the side of it so they would not be hurt, only unconscious. When the last one was left, he laughed. "They didn't have time to use their magic, but you won't be able to escape mine." Pausing, he moved his hands slightly. "Bane gory crush!" He yelled and out of the air appeared a sword that hurtled towards Tegan. With a wave of her hand, however, the sword that should have hit her face, became smaller than an ant and clattered to the floor.

"Is that really all that you have?" Getting her axe ready to swing, she laughed. "Because that was an attack unworthy of such a guild as Raven Tail." With a whoosh, the axe moved and hit the man in the chest, making him fly across the room. "Home run!" Tegan shouted happily as she ran back to the table that Laxus was still frozen at.

The axe shrunk as she looked expectantly at Laxus. "Come on," she said as she grabbed her packages from the floor. "We should get going before the law comes. Don't want to get arrested, eh, Laxus?" When Laxus didn't move, she grabbed his hand and began to pull. "Come on, you lug. I went all this way to try to find you, the least that you can do is be at least a little cooperative. I mean, I did just save you from that dark guild."

Confused, Laxus finally relented and let himself be dragged by this girl. He noticed that on the back of her shoulder behind a green spaghetti strap was a guild symbol of a circle with another circle within it with little lines connecting the two of them.

Tegan dragged him out to the front of the pub where a car was running. "Get in there." She said as she gave him a push. Doing as he was told, he ran into the backseat of the car.

"Thank god you decided to show up, Tegan, I've been waiting forever. I don't have an unlimited supply of magic, you know." The irritated tenor voice did nothing but make Tegan laugh. "Where to, your highness?"

With a lopsided smile, Tegan glanced over to Laxus. "Well, I got the cargo, so it's time to go back to the guild, Anton." With a grunt, the car began to move at a high speed away from the pub.

"Okay, I've played along long enough," Laxus said as he put his hand around Tegan's small neck. "Who are you and what the hell do you want with me?"

Smiling, Tegan just let herself be held by him like that. "Now there's the Laxus that we all know and love. Tell me, how long have you been waiting to do this?" The only response that she received was a tightening grip from Laxus. Her voice a bit more strained, she continued to talk. "We've heard that you can't find a guild; your reputation is so bad that no one will take you. We decided to rectify that situation. Right, Anton?"

From the front seat the boy's distracted voice drifted back. "Don't drag me into this. I see you getting choked back there; I don't want the same fate. It was nice knowing you, Tegan. I'll put flowers at your grave every year." Sarcasm oozed from his voice, and Laxus could see why he and Tegan were partners.

Tegan rolled her eyes. "Anyways, we're from a new guild called Ham- could you please let go of me, or at least loosen up a little? It's really hard to talk like this." Though keeping his hand on her neck, he did loosen it a little. "Thanks." She paused for a moment to cough. When she was done she continued to speak. "We're from a newish guild called HamStar Wheel. Right now we're recruiting members, and my master expressed an interest in trying to get you." There was a small choking noise from her throat, probably the sign that she was going to pass out soon if he didn't let go.

"Why would he want me?" Laxus asked a bit dumbfounded as he released her neck entirely. There wasn't a single person in the magic community who didn't know how he had betrayed his guild. He thought that if a guild would even consider him, he would have to get on his hands and knees and beg to be expected; aside from dark guilds, he hadn't thought that anyone would openly seek him.

Rubbing her neck, Tegan shrugged in an awkward way. "I think that _she_ thinks that she can change you; make you better." Trying not to be offended, Laxus continued to listen. "She's like that. But we're a legal guild with about twenty members, so we're not totally hopeless, and having you may be exactly what we need to make a bit more of a splash and get noticed and recognized. It would help the caliber of the requests that we get if we have such a powerful mage there…" Her voice trailed off for a moment.

The voice from the front popped back again. "Except for Subaru; he could probably kick even Laxus's ass…" With a frantic urgency he added, "not that he would have an easy time with it!" Fear oozed into his words, and it made Laxus smile.

"Yeah, but Subaru wouldn't do anything to actually get recognized; he'd rather just do low-profile things." Tegan sighed and pulled her legs up onto the seat and locked her arms around them. "If we were to have a few good mages who weren't afraid to get out there and get noticed then maybe we could finally grow a bit."

"Where is this guild?" Laxus asked, skeptically. If this place needed to kidnap him in order to get noticed, he wasn't sure that this was the sort of place that he needed to be associated with. There were still other guilds that he had not visited yet and one of them would probably take him; what made this place so special that he had to give up his chances at anywhere else. "What's it like?"

Leaning back in her seat, Tegan put her feet up on the back of the chair in front of her. "It's about a three days drive here if you're a normal human. With me at the wheel in my element, it's about one. So we'll be there in two…" Pausing, she yawned, followed by a slight cough. "As for what it's like… You were at Fairy Tail for a long time; you've never been anywhere else, eh?" Next to her Laxus nodded. "These two are pretty different. The people at HamStar can't afford to be as lazy as the people at Fairy Tail can. A lot of us are just trying to pay the bills, so the atmosphere can be a lot more serious than the people who populate Fairy Tail. It's a tougher life with less well-paying requests." Suddenly her head turned with a big smile. "That doesn't mean that it can't be fun now and then, however. Especially on Friday nights when Anton thinks that he can drink more than he actually can and-"

"Is this revenge for me not backing you up earlier?" A giggle met him in response. "You always say that it's cute when I get up and sing karaoke at the bar; that's why I do it." He muttered as the car made a sharp turn that made Tegan ram into the wall.

Sighing, Laxus leaned his head against the window. He had never heard of any guild being named HamStar Wheel, and was honestly hoping for something a bit more high profile. Then again, maybe it was exactly what he needed to make a new beginning. More and more it was sounding like this place wasn't as terrible as he expected it to be, and at least these two were honest about it. A new Laxus at a new guild may be good for his image; if he could make this place famous because of him, then maybe he would be able to move up to a better guild eventually while giving these people a bit of a better life.

"Shut your eyes, little Laxus," Tegan said as she pulled out a blanket from the floor and put it over her lap. "It'll be a while before we reach our destination, but once you get there you'll be run ragged. There are a few tests that the boss wants you to go through before she admits you. Eh, Anton?" A mutter of agreement came from up front, mixed with uncivil words about alcohol. Shutting her eyes, Tegan laughed quietly. "Good night, Laxus."

She talked as if the two of them were so familiar already, it was unnerving to Laxus. He wished that he had stayed in that bar and drank his beer and went off tomorrow to go to another guild that would reject him; now he was stuck on some crazy roller coaster ride of which he did not know the ending destination.

Soon she was asleep, the only noise in the car now coming from its magic powered motor. But for some reason, Laxus found that he couldn't fall asleep.

--

For the next two days the group drove, Tegan and Anton alternating driving in the front and sleeping in the back, with the occasional pit stop for food and use of the bathroom. It was cramped, dirty, boring and when Tegan talked, occasionally irritating. Laxus was just about to begin to regret coming to this place when they finally reached their destination.

It was not quite as ostentatious as Fairy Tail was, but then again, no other could surpass the tackiness of that place. But it was much smaller as well; it just looked like a plain old cabin with a huge glowing neon sign of the mark that Tegan had on her shoulder on the front of it.

When they neared the place a few people piled out of the building and onto the front lawn to greet them. The place where the guild was could be called picturesque. The small wooden cabin with grassy fields in front of it with a large lake on one side. It was amazing that they could get job requests here with it being so far away from any giant urban center; sure, there were a few towns nearby, but nothing too imposing.

Almost as soon as the car stopped moving Tegan jumped out of the front and ran over to the people waiting and jumped on top of one of them. Their cheering group included five people plus one other who leaned on the building in the shadows smoking a cigarette. "Are we there yet?" The redheaded Anton asked him irritated. From next to him Laxus heard a yawn; waking up and looking exhausted, Anton walked out of the car. Laxus followed suit.

As soon as his foot hit the grassy ground, conversation stopped. All eyes were on Laxus, and most of them were surprised eyes as well. There was not a noise in the area except for the small sizzle of a cigarette. That was, until the girl that Tegan had hugged said, "Well hell, ya'll actually got him to come."

Suddenly there was cheers and excitement mixed with a few not-so-kind words. A few more people trickled out of the building and the man who was smoking seemed to disappear. From around him came introductions that he could not understand or hear because they were yelled over each other and too quickly along with a few swears and insults.

Already they were treating him as if he were one of their own; was that how a guild was supposed to be? Vaguely he could remember the people at Fairy Tail smiling and cheering as their fellow mages returned from difficult missions unharmed, but he had never taken part in those sorts of things. Whenever he had returned to his 'home' it had been only to get a new request and mock the others who worked so hard there.

A regal looking older woman strutted through the doors of the building and all went silent. The gray hair on her head was pulled up into a tight bun and she wore a maroon business-like suit with gold earrings and a necklace of the same color. On her beak-like nose sat a pair of eyeglasses of black. "Laxus Dreyar?" He nodded. "Good. You've decided to accept my invitation. Introductions can come later; first, we need to test you and see if you are suited to my guild."

"And how will you be doing that, ma'am?" Laxus asked sarcastically, not liking the condescending way that she spoke.

The woman smiled revealing one golden tooth. "Easy, a battle, of course."

Finally, someone at the guild had begun to speak his language.

--

_End of Chapter One_


	2. Battle Royale!

**Chapter Title: **Battle Royale

**Chapter Description:** In order to be accepted into HamStar Wheel, Laxus must battle some other members of the guild. What he doesn't know, however, is that the master of the guild is looking for strength in more than just the physical sense.

**A/N: **I have a Hamtaro poster on my wall because I bought a coloring book (on sale for $2!) at Boarders on an impulse buy during early February. It fell down the night while I was first writing this, which is how I got the idea for the guild's name.

**Character Spotlight**: Anton Lukens is a redheaded nineteen year-old who is a stellar spirit mage. His goal is to collect all of the keys to the Eastern Zodiac. He's great friends with Tegan and considers himself to be a father figure to Amelia, even if she doesn't feel that way about him. He's been in the guild for about six months now. The reason that he joined HamStar was because his older brother is in Lamia Scale and badmouthed him to all of the famous guilds for no reason, so he can't get into any of them. He has trouble holding his liquor.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Fairy Tail, because if I did, I would make it so Natsu actually lose occasionally.

--

"The rules are as such, three members of my precious guild will volunteer to do battle with this man, Laxus Dreyar, in order for me to inspect his abilities. No one is to cause any major injuries in anyone else, no matter how much they may enjoy doing so." the master, Regina Ripkins, turned her head over to Tegan, sitting in the audience of people who were watching Regina with Laxus standing next to her. "That rule includes you, Tegan." The girl stuck her tongue out at her master as soon as Regina's head was turned once again. "From what I see during these battles I will decide if Laxus would make a good match for our guild or not. Is this understood by everyone?" There were various nodding heads amongst the wooden benches that they were all sitting on and mutterings of agreements. "Very good. Now, who will be Laxus's first opponent?"

Not a single person made a sound or moved a muscle.

Regina looked around appalled. "Now, he's not that scary; I'm sure that you won't get that hurt going up against him." Her eyes searched the crowd. "Nyssa?" The girl who Tegan had jumped on top of earlier shook her head 'no', her head of green hair bouncing.

An irritated voice came from the back. "I'll take him on." A man who looked like he wouldn't dirty his gloves for anything, let alone a battle with Laxus, stepped forward. "I've got five spare minutes." Taking off those gloves that he apparently cared about so much, and handing them to a nearby person, he inspected Laxus from head-to-toe. "Rhett Mikkay is my name, 'Whirlwind' is the name of my skill." Stifling a laugh, Laxus looked Rhett up and down thinking that the poor 'chap' wouldn't stand a chance.

Rhett was the sort of kid who got beat up on the school grounds. From his pretenscious speech patterns to the preppy wise-guy outfit that he wore, this fellow was the sort that belonged in country clubs, not in guilds of mages.

Smiling, Regina left the area that the two would be fighting in. "Very good, Rhett. I wish you luck!" Laxus couldn't help but to notice how quickly she left that field.

As quickly as that, Rhett had his jacket and shirt off and was standing, his bear chest to the world, looking quite pitiful. There was nothing more depressing than a teenage boy with a sunken-in chest trying to pretend to be a man. "Don't you have chest hair?" Laxus asked with a laugh.

Apparently, this set Rhett off for some reason. Momentarily, his eyes flashed to the pupils of a wild animal before he screamed "WHIRLWIND!" The noise almost burst Laxus's eardrums, but he managed to stay on his feet as a…. shocker… whirlwind surrounded Rhett, circling around him and threatening to blow away anyone who dared to get near it.

The audience whispered amongst themselves, but Laxus couldn't hear any of it. With a smile he snapped his fingers, sending a thunderbolt straight into the vortex of air. Just as he had predicted, the vortex disappeared in a moment, leaving a blackened and charred Rhett behind. The wind may have been a good defense from the sides, but it did nothing to stop an aerial attack. That boy was pathetic. "That'll keep the chest hair from ever growing." Laxus muttered to himself as a couple of guild members ran out to take their friend back into the headquarters. Turning his head and speaking a bit louder, with smile he asked, "Who's next?" In a corner, Regina was furiously writing notes on a piece of paper.

From her seat, Tegan got up and stretched, coughing a bit into her hand. "That was pretty fast Laxus, but it will take longer to take me-"

"No, Tegan." Next to her Anton put a hand on her shoulder and tried to pull her back down. "Don't do that; you'll just be asking for your…" He trailed off.

Shrugging off his touch, she stood upright and defiant. "I'm perfectly capable of-"

"Don't tempt fate, Tegan."

"Who said anything about fate, Anton?"

He put a hand on hers. "Please, just don't." People around them muttered, nodding or shaking their heads. No idea what they were talking about, Laxus tried to ignore the scene, focusing on the faces in the crowd, and which one he would take out next. Whatever was happening to Tegan was none of his concern.

Taking a step away from Anton, Tegan slapped his hand down with the look of a deer about to be hit by a car. "I could fight him if I wanted to." Imploring, Anton stared at her. "But I don't want to so I'll…" Trailing off, she got up and began to walk over to the headquarters, then breaking into a run to catch up with the group that was carrying Rhett.

Despite being confused for a moment, Laxus still stared at the group of people with low expectations. If they were all too unwilling to fight than maybe he should take his chances and try to find another-

"Fine. But if I go home in a body bag, tell my family that I love them." The girl who Regina had called Nyssa stood up, shaking some dirt from her skirt. From the huge green hair to the huge… assets, this was the sort of girl who Laxus liked the most. She was a fine piece of meat.

Once she got to the front, she was even better looking. It would be a shame if he were to damage such an attractive girl. "Why don't you spare yourself and go sit back down, babe. I wouldn't want to wreck your looks with a thunderbolt to the face. That'd be a shame."

Smiling, Nyssa pulled the sleeves of her cardigan sweater up to her elbows. "Don't be so sure that you'll get so far." Raising her right arm up to be level with the ground, she placed her left hand on the upper part of her right, and aimed her arm towards Laxus. "Venom canon, fire!" A few purple spikes came from Nyssa's arm heading straight towards Laxus, who just barely managed to dodge. Before he could even get his footing once again, he was dodging more and more bullets that, when they hit the ground, made the grass shrivel up and die.

"What the hell is that?" He asked as he dodged another set.

With a laugh, Nyssa put her arm down momentarily. "Venom bullets; my specialty. If one hits you, you'll be out for a week at least. If more than one…"

The girl took his bait. While she was unprepared to attack, he snapped his fingers and lightning hurtled towards her. Eyes grew wide as Nyssa saw that she had no way to block the attack; not even a buffer, like Rhett did. Pulling her arms over her head, she did what she could but… the lightning blot did not hit.

"Laxus did you…?" She began as she looked up, expecting that it was him who had stopped the lightning bolt, but what she saw was a green barrier surrounding her, one that was not conjured by her and had not been there moments before.

Whispers filled the audience, as Laxus grew more and more outraged. "Who did that?!" He yelled, not really expecting to answer for their actions. It was one thing to protect the girl anonymously, but another to go up against one of the most powerful mages in the world. That person would be a moron to try to defeat Laxus.

A waft of smoke came from next to Laxus. "Fighting without boundaries like that; you would have really hurt her that way." A shell-shocked Nyssa was lead from the field and into the headquarters by a few glaring guild members. From the cloud of the cigarette's residue came a slim body and a head of black hair.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Laxus could see Regina stand up in the audience to get a better look at this exchange. "And you care?" The man, who appeared to have dark purple eyes, did not look at Laxus, but rather, the place that Nyssa had been standing a few moments ago. His eyes never moved from that spot.

With a great nonchalance, the man tapped his cigarette, causing the ashes to fall to the ground slightly burning the grass that Nyssa's powers had withered. "I guess that I do." As the smoke cleared more, Laxus could see the man's pale skin in the moonlight.

Irritated at how slow everything was going, Laxus tried to speed things up. "So are you going to fight me for revenge or something?" If there was a fight to be had, there was no use dawdling. The strong would go forth now rather than prolonging conversation beforehand out of fear.

A 'tsk' came from the man's throat. "No." He began to walk away from Laxus towards the headquarters. Disappointed, Regina sat down.

"Coward!" Laxus yelled from across the field, causing the man's movements to stop quickly. In a flash, the man's arms spread apart and Laxus was on the receiving end of an explosion that nearly knocked him over. Smiling slightly as he regained his balance, he muttered, "That's more like it." Snapping his fingers, a bolt of thunder plummeted towards the man, but he was able to counter it easily with the green barrier that he had made before. Apparently his magic was quite versatile.

Walking with a haughty air about him, Laxus returned to the place where he had been standing once more across from where the man continued to smoke his cigarette. "That will give you cancer, you know." He jokingly stated, but a dark cloud came over the man's eyes. Just as the comment about chest hair irritated Rhett, cancer seemed to irritate whoever this was.

"I've been told that before." A few pieces of paper flew from a hand of the man and turned into doves that flew towards Laxus at an incredible speed. Before Laxus was able to summon any lightning to destroy them, their razer sharp wings cut into Laxus's sides and the once clean clothes that he was wearing were now stained with red.

Angry now, Laxus decided that this guy was someone who he would have to actually work against; one of the people at this guild was not weak. "Flash blaze bolt!" He yelled, as a thunderbolt grew more and more powerful above his head. When the moment was right, he moved his arms and directed the bolt towards the man, who continued to stand there and smoke.

A great flash of light filled the sky, and with a smile, Laxus knew that it was over. Even if he had some sort of freaky barrier in his arsenal, there was no way that he could have blocked an attack like that; there was a reason that Laxus was considered one of the best of such an elite guild as Fairy Tail.

When the light cleared Laxus looked at the place that his unconscious body should be and… It wasn't there. Instead he saw the man walking back to the headquarters, _still_ with his damn cigarette in his mouth.

What was even _stranger_, however, was the piece of paper that was now attached to his own chest. Short and white, it had nothing more than a bright red star drawn on it. A laugh came from the audience as the man twitched his hand, sending an explosion from the piece of paper into Laxus's face. Before losing consciousness, Laxus heard a cheer from the crowd of people watching.

--

"Yo, idiot. Get up." There was a jab in Laxus's side, and he blinked his eyes open to find Anton kicking him harshly in the stomach. "You look heavy and I don't want to have to carry you back."

Groaning, Laxus smacked Anton's leg with as much energy as he could muster. He was absolutely ashamed of how that final battle went; to have been defeated with what seemed like so much ease on that man's part was just pathetic. More than anything Laxus wanted to go announce a rematch and kick that guy's ass from here until next Tuesday. "It's darker… Don't tell me-"

"Two hours." Picking at his fingernails, Anton flicked the bits of debris out at Laxus. "Now nappy time is over, Regina needs to talk to you."

Wincing as he sat up, Laxus huffed. This was not the treatment he, formerly a S-class mage at Fairy Tail, deserved. Even if he had been defeated, being left out on the cold, hard ground for two hours seemed to be the wrong conduct for someone of his talents that the guild had requested join them. "Why're you out here then? Shouldn't she be the one to come get me, and as a matter of fact, why did you all just let me sit out here for the past two hours? I could have been seriously hurt or something, you know-"

"Oh shut up with your whining." Irritated, Anton began to walk back towards the house, calling over his shoulder. "With what you did to our nakama, you should be thankful that you've only been out for two hours."

Then there was a choice. Laxus could follow Anton into the guild, be hated by everyone in it, be unsatisfied with the fact that everyone was so weak and hate his life. The other choice was to go now and never look back.

He chose the second option.

--

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Shocked, Laxus dropped the bag that he had brought with him. Inside the car that he had been kidnapped in was Tegan, looking particularly comfortable. "Not trying to escape, are you?"

Picking the bag back up, Laxus leaned against the car. "None of you really want me here and I don't particularly wish to be in your guild either, so I thought it best that I just pack up and leave." Looking down there was a bloodstained tissue on the ground. He kicked it underneath the car, not wanting to look at how disgusting it was.

Laughing, Tegan brought her knees up to her chest. "That's cowardly, don't you think? We're the first guild that's given you a chance, but with one mess up you're ready to quit. Sort of pathetic, eh? That doesn't make you sound very manly-" Suddenly, Tegan began to cough violently into a tissue. The coughs came in like a parade; each was louder and longer than the next. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes and her face grew red. When she was finally done, she pulled the tissue away from her mouth; there was blood on it. "Just apologize and they'll be fine. Anton's just a wuss who has a thing for Nyssa." Even though she spoke as if nothing had happened, her voice was now gravelly and hoarse as she wiped some blood away from her mouth, embarrassed.

Speechless, Laxus stared. "Are you alright?"

Sad, Tegan smiled. "You know why I'm in this guild, Laxus?" He shook his head. "Good, because if you did know, that'd be sorta creepy." A small strained laugh came out of her mouth when he didn't find that funny. "When I was younger my dad left us; my mom and my five other siblings. I was thirteen. He left and then suddenly there was no one to support us. My siblings were too young to work and my mom had no real skills at anything. It was then that I quit school and became a fulltime mage; I've supported them for the past seven years." There was more coughing and more blood, shorter this time, but more violent. "But it doesn't look like I'll be able to for much longer."

Tegan patted the seat next to her for Laxus to sit in; he obeyed. "So you're sick." She nodded, her face growing paler.

"It comes and goes; it's worse than usual tonight, which is why I'm out here. I don't want anyone to worry or be grossed out by it." With a skeptical eye she looked Laxus over. "You don't have some secret blood paranoia, right?" He shook his head. "That's good; it's nice to have the company, even if you're just going to run away."

Sighing, he leaned back in his chair. "Why would you want me to stay here if all I do is cause destruction?"

Shrugging, Tegan tied the laces on one of her brown boots. "Maybe it's because it seems like I don't have much longer, but I think that I don't want anymore regrets in my life. There's a lot that I should have done that I didn't, and now it's getting to be too late. If something happened to you…" Trailing off, her eyes went glassy and contemplative for a moment. "I would hope that leaving here would be one of your regrets." More coughing came along with some swearing that most sailors would find offensive. "It's a good place with some good people. You just need to let them make an impact on you."

Outside there was someone running towards the car. "Who's that?" Laxus asked gesturing out of his window.

Leaning over Laxus, Tegan surveyed who it was. Something between a smile and a frown came on her features, as if she were remembering something happy in the past, but was over now. It was the same look that Laxus got on his face when he thought about Fairy Tail before he had messed everything up there. "It's only Anton; just be quiet for a minute. He probably won't look here." Leaning back in her chair, Tegan closed her eyes for a moment, before one shot open. "Unless, of course, you're still planning on leaving. Then I'd like to get out of the car beforehand." She smiled.

Rolling his eyes, Laxus put his feet up on the dashboard. "What kind of a wimp do you think I am? I'm not going to run away just because it's difficult. I'm the strongest; I can survive this." One of Tegan's hands patted his head like he was a dog, and her smile grew. Though he didn't want to admit that she had won, he smiled back at her.

--

"No problem, it could have been worse." Smiling, Nyssa gave Laxus's arm a pat. "Anyway, as long as it doesn't happen again, we're all good." A few bandages on her face, Nyssa seemed no worse for the wear thanks to that person's, who he learned was named Subaru, protective barrier.

Rhett, on the other hand, was a different story. With his arm in a sling and stitches in his leg, it would take him a bit of time to heal. Though with slight reluctance, he accepted Laxus's apologies as well, telling him that it would be 'improper' if he did not accept a man's sincere apology. Laxus knew that no matter how long he stayed in the guild and how many he people he would (maybe) grow to like with time, Rhett would never be one of them.

The only one that Laxus had left to make amends with was Subaru, but he was shaken to find that he was already gone.

"He's almost never around." Regina said when he inquired about his whereabouts. "Comes, gets a request, leaves. One of those types. No one knows much about him, and he has never made an effort to get known either." Pausing, she hummed a quiet tune to herself. "But when we're in trouble he comes to the rescue and if we need a favor he's always willing. All in all, he seems like a fine person; a shining example of human nature."

Not really caring about the virtues of the guy who beat him, Laxus began to tap his foot, but Tegan jabbed him in the ribs. "Do you know when he'll be back?" He asked, but Regina shook her head with a little frown. "I guess I'll have to wait until the next time that I see him, then."

For the first time, Tegan piped up. "See, he's not that bad a seed. I told you that he'd apologize if I could talk to him for a bit." Laxus turned his head just in time to catch the wink that Tegan gave him. It had been a trap. "Can he stay?" She asked, like a kid who found an abandoned puppy on the street and was begging their parents to keep it. If she wasn't so sick, Laxus would have kicked her ass.

Her nose up in the air, Regina looked Laxus down from head-to-toe. Her eyes scanned each corner of his body, searching for some unknown sign. For some unknown reason, Laxus's heart was beating just a bit faster in his chest. Not that he was worried or anything; he must have just had heart burn or something. "He'll have to gain my trust; I'm weary about letting him lose on the world alone."

Smiling, Tegan put an arm around Laxus's back. "Don't worry about that; he's joining Anton and me. We're going to be the strongest team in all of HamStar Wheel." Raising an eyebrow, Regina looked at Laxus in a new light.

In her mind, Regina debated. Sure, he was an asshole who had taken out two members of her precious guild, but Tegan really did seem to be fond of him. When it came to character, Tegan wasn't always the best of judges, but lately she hadn't been wrong with a recruit. After all, the last person who she had brought around was Subaru, and he was one of the best success stories and mages that HamStar Wheel had.

"And you agreed to this, Laxus?" Skeptical, there was a hint of amusement in her voice. "From what I had heard you only worked alone or with minions that were completely under your control. You've never been on a team before, are you ready for that sort of a challenge."

Despite the fact that it was the first time that he had heard that he was going to be spending more time than perhaps desired with Tegan and Anton, he shrugged. "I'll try my best." Pausing, he looked at Tegan with just a bit of warmth. "They're my nakama now, I guess." The strange thing was, he didn't really know if he was pretending when he said that, putting on a show of his goodness so that Regina would let him into the guild, or if he really did like Tegan and Anton.

Looking at Tegan for a moment, thinking of the pros and cons of this one last time in her head, Regina nodded briskly. "Fine." With a flourish, Regina left the room, leaving Tegan and Laxus behind.

Almost immediately, Tegan's arm removed itself from Laxus as she jumped up and sat on the desk. "That nakama line was incredibly contrived. You could write bad romance novels with something like that." Yawning, she coughed slightly into her hand, though it was not as bad as it had been a few hours ago. There was no blood left over.

Tired, Laxus yawned and leaned against a wall of the room. "Yeah, well, it's not like your performance was much better, _partner_."

"Don't forget, we're in a threesome now." Snorting at her own joke, Tegan moved her legs to be cross-legged on Regina's clean desk. "You can't forget about Anton; he'll be traveling with us as well."

"You were serious about us being a team then?" It was slightly surprising to Laxus; he hadn't thought that Anton would have agreed to something like that. As far as he could tell the kid hated his filthy rotten guts and wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.

Tegan nodded. "Yep. The three of us will be as close as can be."

"I have a question for you." Tegan leaned forward, mocking his interest with a great deal false enthusiasm. "Why weren't you coughing in the bar or on the way over here?"

Yawning, Tegan sat back up straight. "That's a lame question. You're dull." Shrugging, Laxus pretended that his curiosity did not run as deep as it did. "But I'll tell you anyway. Anton is a Stellar Spirit mage. One of his spirits can do acupuncture that works really well with my… problems. Anton summons him every couple of weeks to help me out with my… problem."

"Stellar Spirits?" There was a girl at Fairy Tail who had been a Stellar Spirit mage. When she had been kidnapped Laxus hadn't helped at all. A bit of regret pooled in his stomach.

Nodding, Tegan jumped off the desk. "Yeah; he's collecting the eastern zodiac. Right now he's got four, plus one western zodiac key and a few silver. His father used to collect them for him and his brother, but his brother didn't like the spirits, so they all went to Anton." Yawning, she began to walk out of the room. "Speaking of which, I need to go find Anton, he's probably been running around like a chicken without a head if I know him well-"

"TEGAN SARMINA, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU." In the doorway was Anton, panting from running around like a chicken with its head cut off, his eyes flashing with a pure hatred that Laxus had only seen a few times before in his life, and never from such a kind, unassuming looking person. Their intensity was shocking. "YOU START COUGHING AGAIN, AND THEN YOU JUST RUN OFF LIKE IT DOESN'T MATTER? I'M GOING TO STRANGLE YOU, THEN BRING YOU BACK FROM THE DEAD AND THEN PULL OUT YOUR ORGANS AND THEN STRANGLE YOU AGAIN, JUST SO YOU KNOW HOW IRRITATED I AM WITH YOU RIGHT NOW."

Moving into the room, the aura of hatred filled the small space, nearly suffocating Laxus, though Tegan seemed immune to it. "It came and it went. I'm fine now-"

"I told you to wait for five minutes while I summoned the Year of the Dragon. But _no_. You ran off like you weren't _coughing up blood_. If you were normal you'd be, I dunno, _worried_ or something about your own health!" Slowly, the black cloud became lifted as the smallest traces of tears began to form in Anton's eyes. "You need to take better care of yourself or-"

Despite the worry that Anton felt for her, Tegan acted as if nothing in the world was wrong and they were just having a conversation about the weather. "I was fine; Laxus here was helping me out like the big boy that he is. Eh, Laxus?" Gesturing over to Laxus, Tegan smiled. It seemed that for the first time, Anton even noticed that he was there. That glare was transferred over to _him_ now. Silently, Laxus cursed Tegan. "He's really a big softie when you get down to the core. You just need to dig a little-"

"We'll talk about _him_ later. Now we need to go get you into bed, Tegan, and your apartment is a ten minute drive." Flashing, Laxus a look, Anton put a hand on Tegan's arm. "You look so pale right now; once you get some sleep we'll try to fix you up in the morning with-"

Irritated, Tegan swatted his hand away. "Shut up, would you. I'm not porcelain!" Seeing what she did, Tegan stared at Anton's hurt face for a moment. "Anton, I-"

"YOU DUMB, STUPID, HORRIBLE, FAT WHORE." Anton yelled as he pulled Tegan into his arms. "I FREAKING HATE YOUR ROTTEN GUTS AND YOU CAN GO TO HELL." Though Laxus thought that those words were a bit strange to be telling your dying friend, Laxus saw that Anton was actually really upset about Tegan's snub. As he held her, he cried silent tears. Realizing that Laxus was watching, Anton squeezed his eyes shut.

"I'm not fat. I just have birthing hips." Tegan joked, though she looked back at Laxus pleadingly from Anton's arms. For some reason, she seemed to be rather uncomfortable. "Now get off; I'm tired and I still have things to tell our new partner."

At the mention of 'partner', Anton let go. Tears in his eyes, the glare came back."And what, Tegan, would you mean by that?"

An evil grin spread across Tegan's face. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I decided to adopt Laxus as my new pet. He'll be traveling along with us as my personal slave."

Robotically, slowly and mechanically Anton moved to look at Laxus, then back at Tegan and finally back at Laxus. "You're kidding. He'll kill us before the enemy does." Rolling his eyes, Laxus kept his mouth shut. It would not help his situation to piss Anton off any further.

Smiling, Tegan ran a hand through her hair. "Then you better start running, because Laxus and I are best friends now. Eh, Laxus?"

"Sure." Pausing, a sinister smile grew on Laxus's face. "We're nakama now."

"I've never heard that word sound quite so evil." Looking like he was going to vomit, Anton leaned against the wall. "What have you gotten me into, Tegan?"

"It's no worse than usual." Tegan said, laughing as she left the room. "At least I'm not trying to find a dragon this time."

Once she left, Anton muttered to himself. "She's crazy."

"No, she's wonderful." Laxus said awestruck. For the first time, he really did have respect for one of the people at his guild and maybe he was in for a wild ride.

--

_End of Chapter Two_


	3. The First Mission

**Chapter Title: **The First Mission

**Chapter Description:** Tegan forces Anton and Laxus out on a new mission against a Dark Guild.

**A/N: **I didn't really like the last chapter; it seemed sort of disjointed. Things should get better now that the characters are past the random exposition point.

**Character Spotlight**: Regina Ripkins. Despite being a member of countless guilds through her long life, Regina always really wanted to run one. After being passed over at the guild that she was working at as next master, she decided to start her own. Taking a few members from the guilds that she had been at, including Tegan and Nyssa, she started HamStar Wheel. It is said that through the ages she's had many lovers, and her true age is not known. Her magic is known as the 'Death Ball'.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Fairy Tail, because if I did, there would be more Loke.

"What's that?" Having a paper shoved in your face was bad, but having it shoved in there at seven a.m. was even worse. "And why are you using it to irritate me so early in the day? Shouldn't you wait until ten to be the most annoying bitch on the face of the planet?" It was early and Laxus hadn't slept well in the old, lumpy bed that he had been given in a guest room of the guild until he was able to find an apartment in the area. The grumpy behavior came with that package.

Smiling, Tegan showed the piece of paper off as if it were a prized jewel. Ignoring the part about her being a bitch, she answered Laxus's first question. "This, my dear friend, is what we, in the business call a request form. Now a request is something that a person submits when they have something that they want a guild to-"

"I know what a request is." Eyes squinted, venom was deeply embedded in his words. There was nothing more that Laxus hated than an annoying person in the morning. "I've been a mage since childhood, if you recall."

Not at all frightened by Laxus's dagger-filled words, Tegan began to read the request in a ridiculous voice, an accent of some far away land. "For sixty thousand jewels, could you please take out a few members of a dark guild that has been in my town and have been harassing the local girls as of late?" Looking up she smiled. "So that's what we'll be doing; it shouldn't be that hard, young apprentice." It just occurred to Laxus that Tegan must have already come here from her apartment, meaning that she was an incredibly early riser. The night before Anton had said that it took about ten minutes to get there; she must have woken up with the roosters.

"That seems like it'd be worth more than sixty thousand jewels. I'm not here to get underpaid." Apartments were expensive. A twenty thousand cut wasn't going to be enough to pay for a place to live and all of the living expenses that he had as well. Food wasn't cheap either. "So I say we chose something different-"

Tegan stuck a finger up. "Nope. We're doing this one. It's nearby and should take us less than a day, so don't you dare complain." Grabbing the mug of coffee that had been sitting in front of Laxus, she took a swig and set it back down with a grimace. "Too bitter." Sticking her tongue out for a moment she searched for something to get the taste away, settling on the muffin that he had been eating. Sticking a large chunk of it in her mouth, she smiled once again. After chewing, she gestured to the door. "Ten minutes until we leave. Get ready or we're leaving you behind."

"That was my muffin." He tried to be angry, but really he was just sulking, Laxus looked at the remnants of the pastry. It had looked so good, full of blueberries and sugar, but now it was gone. Tegan, of course, had eaten the top, the good part. Bitch.

Laughing, Tegan got up off the table and put a hand on Laxus's shoulder. "Don't worry, the poor thing is in muffin heaven now. Besides, you're my loyal slave and will give your master whatever she needs, whether it be your muffin or your body." Laxus remembered her saying that last nigh; he had tried to block it out and hoped that she would have forgotten as well. Turning the gesture into a smack on the head, she spoke again. "Now get ready or instead of twenty thousand jewels, you'll be getting zero. Regina is not letting you out unless you're with a team and we're the only ones who'll have you."

She left, waving to a number of people as she walked out of the room, stopping to ruffle some kid's hair and to hug a person or two.

"That girl is very happy." Standing next to Laxus was Regina, who he had not seen come into the room, nor had he felt the presence of before. Actually, her arrival was incredibly creepy. "It's a shame that she doesn't have that much time left."

"So it's true that she's really sick?" Picking at his muffin, he tried rationalize that thought. The strongest were the ones who survived; it just so happened that Tegan wasn't that strong. Even if she seemed like she'd withstand anything, if she wasn't able to survive, then she wasn't. It was how the world worked. The weak were thrown aside so the strong could thrive.

Nodding, Regina put a hand down on the wooden table. "It's a bit more complicated than that, but-"

"Regina!" A girl across the room shouted with a great gesticulation; she wanted Regina over there, and soon. Sighing, Regina put a finger up, signaling that it would be just a moment.

Glaring, Regina grabbed Laxus's arm and before he could protest she put a stamp on it. Steaming just a bit after the magical impact, Laxus pulled it away to see a blue stamp just like the one Tegan had on her shoulder. Two circles, one inside of the other, with little lines connecting the two. It was, undeniably, a hamster wheel. "You have our sign now, make us proud, Laxus." With a pat on his shoulder, Regna picked up and went over to the girl who was calling to her.

Sighing, he stared at the unsightly stamp that was now attached to his forearm. Things were just moving very quickly; he felt sort of like if he wasn't careful, he's get thrown off the roller coaster.

"Is that really all that you're bringing?" Tegan walked over with a small duffle bag, smaller than his own and prepared to place it into the back of the carriage that they were going to ride in. "Are you even a woman?"

Suddenly the duffle bag grew much larger, dwarfing his own and too big to even fit into the vehicle. "This is how big it really is." He had forgotten; shrinking things was her specialty. "I just need to make it small enough that it will fit, but large enough that I don't lose it." With a snap of her fingers the bag became small once again and she carelessly tossed it into the back. It now fit cozy with the Laxus's black duffle bag and Anton's beaten up tan leather suitcase.

"Are we all ready to go?" Anton asked from the driver's seat of the carriage. His rage from last night seemed to quell a bit, which Laxus was secretly grateful for. The way that he had been last night had almost frightened even him.

Instead of taking a magic draining car to their gig, Tegan had apparently decided to take a horse drawn carriage. Though that was strange, what was even stranger was the fact that apparently Anton knew how to drive one. It seemed that he was a man of many talents, from horses to acupuncture.

"Yep, all set, Anton!" Grabbing his arm, Tegan dragged Laxus into the carriage. "You can start this thing." And so Anton did. The set of horses whinnied and they set off.

"So what exactly are we going to have to do on this mission, anyway?" Leaning back, Laxus put his feet up next to where Tegan was sitting, something that she didn't seem to appreciate from the look of disgust on her face.

Sighing, she moved closer to the window on the side of the carriage that she was sitting by and farther from Laxus's feet. "We're going to go into town, take out a few members of a dark guild, get their asses in jail then get the money. It should only take a couple hours." In response, Laxus picked at his fingernails. "You could be just a _bit_ more enthusiastic, you know. We didn't have to take you along." She began to jiggle her leg.

"You're not coughing anymore." Was what he replied.

"No, I'm not." She glared at him, and though it wasn't as bad as what Anton was doing last night, it was still enough to make Laxus feel a bit on edge. "Anton fixed that up for me this morning," Once again, Laxus was amazed by how much of an early riser this girl was. "So that's that. Let's not continue the subject."

They rode in silence for a few minutes, Tegan pulling apart her split ends and Laxus picking at his finger nails. Breaking the monotonous game of ignoring one another, Anton spoke from the front of the carriage. "Tegan, I think that we have a problem."

Like a meerkat who had just spotted a hawk, Tegan turned around at the speed of light to face the opening of the carriage where she could talk to Anton. "What is it?"

"You see, on the road here there's someone who's just…"

"Standing there." Sticking his head out of the window, Laxus could see whom they were talking about. In the dead center of the road was a man, dressed in a prim black suit, smoking a cigarette just standing there for no apparent reason, a small grin on his face.

Looking out her own window, Tegan yelled to the man. "Hey, would you mind moving off of the road, we need to get through?" Not the most polite way to go about it, but at least it got his attention.

The man turned around, noticing them for the first time. Almost immediately, he put a hand behind his head and laughed with a nervous edge. "Sorry about that; I'll be out of your hair in just a moment." And he walked off of the street and under a cherry tree that was sitting at the side of the road. The pink petals fell into his black hair and for a moment, Laxus thought that he saw a body, covered in blood and full of holes, next to that man.

The man smiled, and waved to them, and the body was gone. It must have just been Laxus's imagination.

When they got to town an elderly woman who told them about the 'hoodlums' that had recently been harassing the town's girls ushered them along. They were taken to the bar that they liked to congregate in, and the old woman promptly ran off, particularly agile despite her age.

So, they walked inside, not quite sure what to expect.

It was just a bar. A fat man in a stained shirt stood behind the wooden counter polishing a pewter beer mug, and various people milled about the place, talking and laughing with one another. There wasn't a thing that seemed to be out of the ordinary.

At first glance, at least.

The man behind the bar was not, in fact, polishing a beer mug, but a gun. The people milling about all had their eyes focused on the group who had just entered and were ready to take them down at a moments notice. Quite a few of the patrons had stamps from guilds of their own, ones that Laxus recognized as being less than lawful.

"Might as well get a table." Suggested Tegan as she walked towards an empty one. "They'll show themselves when they want to."

Though he followed her, Laxus disagreed. These people would know how strong he was and they would never show themselves to him outright; people just didn't walk by and ask _Laxus Dreyar _to fight. That was almost a death wish that-

"You three mages?" Moments after they sat down, a sleazy man with golden teeth approached them. "You comin' to get us and throw us in jail?" He giggled, a girlish noise for such a manly looking man. "That's a joke."

Smiling, Tegan nodded. "Exactly; I'm glad that you understand." From the corner of his eye, he could see Tegan pulling her axe, very shrunken, out of her pocket. "Are you going to come with us easily?"

"Of course not; I'm not someone that you could mess with like that." He took a step back and five copies of himself suddenly surrounded him. The sheet that they were given showed three pictures, one of each person that they needed to capture, but it had said nothing about their powers. Apparently this one had replication and was damn good at it too. Looking around, he couldn't tell one copy from the other.

Standing up, Tegan enlarged her axe. "No problem at all; I just have to kill five pansy bastards instead of one." With a great whoosh, her axe swung, hitting the copy nearest to her, who immediately exploded into a cloud of dust. With a satisfied smile, Tegan pulled back her axe, ready to attack the next one, but as she was about to swing, her body jolted and she was thrown back, hitting the wall with a thud.

All of the clones grinned at once. "Oh, I forgot to tell you; you'll be shocked if you hit the wrong me. So go ahead and guess all you like!" Ten more copies of the guy appeared, all laughing and all glaring at them.

Getting up and wiping a bit of blood from a cut that had formed on her cheek, Tegan looked worse for the wear. Still, she raised her axe to strike once again, but with a snap of Laxus's fingers, that was unnecessary. He shocked all of the clones at once, turning all but one into steaming piles of ash.

"Laxus, you idiot you're just going to-" Tegan began, but stopped when all of the electricity from the replicas went right into Laxus's mouth. With a great gulp, he swallowed the lethal dose of electricity and smacked his lips. "Hell."

Getting up from his own lethal dose of electricity, the man half-crawled over to them, shock all over him. "You should be dead!" He screamed. "You. Should. Be. Dead!"

"Sucks to be you, then." With one kick to the head, the guy was out cold.

He looked around the bar, seeing if he could recognize the other two from the picture, the door slammed, and he thought he knew where the other ones were. Without consulting the others in his group, he broke out in a sprint, hoping to catch up to them.

They split up, going each direction. Anton was soon out of the door, and with a curt nod, each of them headed in different directions, each of them headed to take one of the two guys down.

Tegan, however, was stuck in the bar, tying the first villain up. He was bound, and tightly, but he began to wake up and squirm. "Damn bitch, let me go!"

"Be quiet, I've got a headache." Trying to amuse herself as the men went of and did their testosterone-fueled fun, Tegan made a glass grow and shrink in her hand. "And the police will be here any moment to take you away, so you'd probably want to-"

"Are you, by any chance, related to Sebastian Bane?" Tegan looked up, eyes wide. "I'll take that as a yes."

Abandoning the chair that she was sitting in, Tegan ran over to the guy and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, bringing his face, reeking of alcohol, close to hers. "What do you know about Sebastian Bane?" She asked through clenched teeth.

The man laughed, sending a wave of disgusting breath in her face. "He knows that his brat has been looking for him, and he wants you to give it up. He'll never help you."

"I don't care what he says, maggot, where _is_ he?"

The man just continued to laugh, and Tegan used all her might to throw him backwards, hoping that he'd hit his head and just die. He didn't. He did, however, lose consciousness and stay that way until the cops arrived.

They thanked Tegan and told her that when they caught the other two culprits, they'd be the ones to pay them. She didn't care; she just wanted to catch up to her friends.

As soon as she could she broke out into a run, not knowing quite where she was going, but using the lightning in the distance to guide her way.

That lightning was a step in the right direction, for Laxus was busy shooting that out at one of the criminals, finishing off the last remnants of the mediocre enchanted arrows that he had tried to shoot at him. When Tegan got there, the guy was down on the ground, twitching like a dead bug.

"You're a little harsh, you know."

"It's been a while since I've been on a mission; I've forgotten how good it feels." Stretching his hands and cracking his knuckles, Laxus looked satisfied. "A job well-"

"Tegan!" Whoever that was, it was not Anton. A small looking girl with long, light blue hair ran out of the alleyway nearby and straight into Tegan. "Tegan, thank goodness, this man," She quickly pointed a finger at Laxus, but dropped it a moment later after he looked at her. Her eyes were focused on the ground now. "That man, he killed Ken!"

Tegan's eyes grew wide as she, once again, looked over at whom Laxus had charred. "Laxus, you are a moron."

Laxus rolled his eyes. "What have I done this time? I was just carrying out the mission that you forced me to go on."

Tegan laughed. "You see, you could blame me if this were my fault, but this, sadly, is not my folly, but yours." The girl moved a step back as Tegan fished through her pockets, biting her lip, before producing the sheet that detailed what they should have been doing. "Does that mess over there look like any of the people on this poster?"

Laxus looked from one to the other and back again.

"My point exactly. All you've managed to do is nearly kill one of the people in your own guild. Congrats." Sighing, she turned to the girl who was cowering in fear, thinking that she would be Laxus's next victim. "Emilia, there's no need to worry. This big lug is my responsibility and I let him out of my sight for a moment and he _will_ be punished." She laughed cruelly at her own joke. "Anyways," She said between chuckles. "Emilia, this is Laxus. Laxus, this is Emilia Sampson, Regina's granddaughter, and the heir to the guild."

Now, Laxus knew that this probably wasn't the best way to introduce himself to someone, just as he had had less-than-perfect introductions at the guild, but he stuck out a hand to the girl anyway. "Hello there, girl, I'm-"

"Please don't hurt me!" The girl took a step back with the look of fear in her eyes that Laxus usually got from the people who found out that they had a hit on their name and he had come to collect them for it. It was not, however, a look that he usually got at his first meeting with an innocent person.

The girl looked from side-to-side once and ran over to the body of her friend. Whoever it was that Laxus burned, he was now moaning with pain. "Good job, Laxus." Tegan said with a pat on his back.

"You don't have to be quite so condescending."

"Ah, but yes, I do." She paused, looking at Emilia and shaking her head. "Anyways, we need to go find and help Anton. It's probably been pretty tough for him, fighting off two criminals at once, eh?"

"I guess." The boy was now sitting upright, and Emilia gingerly helped him move around. Laxus didn't really feel bad for the guy; he hadn't done anything to stop him, but the look of fear in the girl's eyes made him feel a little uneasy. Was he really that frightening?

Tegan grabbed his hand and began to run, Laxus followed at her heels. "Do you have any idea where he may be?"

"Just go down this road; we split off on either side." She nodded and they both focused on the task at hand now. All thoughts of that girl were out of his head now; there was nothing but him and this request and what he needed to do for it.

Soon enough, they heard the noises of battle and followed them to the scene of two-against-one, with Anton fairing pretty well given his current situation. The Year of the Monkey was summoned, swinging around, confusing the two people who he was fighting against. It jumped from one head to the other, tripping the bodies, bashing their weapons and nipping at their shoulders, its human body covered in a monkey costume. Though rather frightening, it was effective at its job.

"You're here, finally!" Anton said with a sigh of relief as the other two joined him at one side of the battlefield. "I was beginning to think that you were going to leave me behind."

Tegan stared at their adversaries, looking them up and down. "Their magic?"

"The one to the left shoots some sort of muck from his hands, but he has to do a special incantation to do it. The other one has a set of juggling balls that surround someone and paralyze you; I don't know what else they do, but I think there's something else to it as well."

"Alright." Tegan's axe grew, and the one of them sent his set of juggling balls towards them. She raised her axe, and it hit the ball, as if she were playing baseball. It flew back towards its master, who caught it in his hand with ease. The other two balls that were in its set surrounded Laxus and Anton, one on either side. Laxus could feel himself grow stiff at an alarming rate. He tried to raise a hand to summon forth his lightning, but he was unable.

He and Anton were both completely paralyzed.

Luckily, the Year of the Monkey continued to create havoc, which gave Tegan an opening that she had to take.

She raised her axe again, this time it being slightly smaller, and she charged towards the two men, screaming as she did so. The one who shot muck got hit first, the wooden stick part of the axe hitting his abdomen, causing him to spit out a bit of blood as he fell to the ground.

The man with the juggling balls stared at Tegan for a moment before holding out his hand. With a 'whoosh' the balls abandoned Anton and Laxus and headed towards Tegan. She grew her axe larger, trying to deflect the balls again, but they were not the same as they were a few moments ago.

A trail of fire fell behind them as the flew, accelerating at an alarming speed. If they would hit her axe, there would be no telling whether or not they would go through it.

But try as he may, Laxus still could barely move. There was no way that he could summon his thunder or get over to Tegan before it would be to late. It didn't look like she had realized the change in the balls from behind her axe, and it seemed like there was a good chance that she would be seriously hurt from-

Breaking free from his paralysis before Laxus, Anton ran as quickly as he could, screaming from the pain, over to Tegan and jumped on her, making her tumble to the ground right as the comet-like balls would have hit her body.

Finally getting his body back, Laxus was able to snap his fingers, and a blot of lightning stopped the battle, the juggler falling to his knees.

"Are you alright?" Laxus yelled as he ran over to where his comrades were.

Tegan laughed and Anton rubbed his sore legs. "Fine."

Laxus smiled; in all honesty, he was glad that they were okay.

"Congratulations on the success of your first mission at HamStar Wheel." Tegan clicked a glass against Laxus's at the bar in the headquarters of the guild. "I'm glad that I chose you."

Laxus shook his head. "There's still the problem of how I'm going to pay my bills; a one-third cut of sixty thousand jewels isn't going to be enough to keep me fed for a week, let alone living in an apartment and-"

"Don't you fret about that, little Laxus." Tegan said, taking a seat next to him. On the other side of the room Nyssa and Anton were talking and laughing with one another. Though focused on the conversation, Tegan's eyes kept wandering over there, lingering on Anton for just a moment too long. "We've come up with a plan for that."

"And that would be?"

"Well, you know Emilia and Ken?" Tegan asked, swirling the brown liquid that she had in her glass around with a flourish.

"The one that I fried and the one who thinks that I'm the boogey man?"

Tegan smiled broadly. "Yes, exactly! I'm proud that you remember so well." Laxus just glared. "Anyways, Ken's going to be out of commission for a while and so Emilia needs some people to tag along with until then."

Laxus rolled his eyes. "So she'll be tagging along with us?" Tegan nodded. "And how, exactly, will that earn us _more_ money? All I see there is the fact that we have to divide the cash between even more people."

An evil grin formed on Tegan's face, and Laxus almost regretted asking that question. "You see, Laxus, Emilia gets different sorts of missions than the ones that you're probably used to."

Intrigued, he leaned a bit closer to Tegan. "And those missions would be…?"

"Emilia is not the strongest mage who ever lived, nor the bravest. She's pretty young for her age and she doesn't always have the… most overbearing personality. But her magic, 'Freeze' has one great skill." She paused for effect, but it just managed to make Laxus pissed. "Thievery."

"You're kidding."

"Hey Laxus, where's your wallet?" Laxus's hand reached for the leather wallet that his grandfather had given him as a teenager. Usually it was in his back pocket… Now it wasn't. He checked the other, just in case, but it wasn't there.

He then saw a rustle of blue hair, and leaning on the other side of the bar from him was Emilia, smiling, his wallet in her hands. "I've got a few missions that I think could help you pay your rent, Laxus."

_End of Chapter Three_


End file.
